


A Side Parade and a Single Balloon

by gilligankane



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-15
Updated: 2010-04-15
Packaged: 2017-11-17 08:19:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Santana looks up only for a moment, but still sees the red balloon floating in the air above the swings and suddenly, two-hand-touch doesn't matter anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Side Parade and a Single Balloon

Santana – eight-years-old, still smiling, and ruining the knees of her new stockings by running on the pavement playground – looks up only for a moment, but still sees the red balloon floating in the air above the swings and suddenly, two-hand-touch doesn’t matter anymore.

“Lopez,” Puck groans, frowning when she tosses him the ball, never taking her eyes off the balloon. He rolls his eyes, mutters “ _girls_ ” under his breath and punches Kurt Hummel in the shoulder, like it’s his fault.

Santana watches the balloon dip and duck in the wind, and when she rounds the corner of the playground, she catches sight of a blond girl sitting on the last swing in the row, her feet dragging in the woodchips.

The girl looks up and smiles. “Hi,” she says loudly.

 “Where’d you get that?” Santana asks, eyes on the balloon.

The blond girl looks up at the balloon, following the string that’s tied twice around her wrist and shrugs. “I like red.”

_“I like red,” Santana told her dad, her fingers digging deeper into his head, grabbing at his hair._

_He laughs and nods, rocking her body back and forth. She gives a small shriek and holds on tighter. “Relax,” he says. The ground is so high from where she is, but he stops moving and she loosens her grip. “A balloon isn’t what I thought you would wish on.”_

_She frowns and narrows her eyes. “You said I could pick.”_

_He laughs again. “I know, mija. A balloon is just as good as a shooting star.”_

_He says it so matter-of- fact that Santana doesn’t even tell him he’s the one who took her out in the middle of the day and everyone knows stars only come out at night._

“Me too,” Santana says, absently reaching out and touching the string of the balloon. “I’m Santana.”

The girl smiles again. “I’m Brittany.”

Santana ignores Quinn frowning at them and sits down in the swing next to Brittany, her mouth hanging open a little.

She wished on a red balloon and here’s one, right in front of her.

“You can hold it, if you want,” Brittany says, already loosening the string around her wrist and sliding it over Santana’s hand, pulling tight.

Santana grabs some of the string in her hand anyway, just in case the knot comes undone and the balloon tries to escape. She squeezes so hard that her fingernails dig a little into her palm, but it doesn’t really hurt and she keeps swinging gently, smiling back at Brittany.

That’s when Quinn comes over, smiling triumphantly at both of them before reaching up, pulling down, and poking a stick into the balloon.

It pops so loud it hurts Santana’s ears.

She launches out of her swing, but Brittany is faster, stepping in front of her and pushing Santana back into her swing.

“It’s okay,” Brittany reassures her. “I have more balloons at home.”

Santana smiles, and is glad she didn’t wish on that one ugly blue kite.


End file.
